YOUTH

WestValleyView.com /WestValleyView For more youth visit westvalleyview.com

Buckeye girl shines in Times Square

BY NICOLE DAY

West Valley View Contributing Writer

Rambunctious 4-year-old Tamia Wilson spends her time playing with dolls, pretending to cook and singing songs around her family’s Buckeye home.

Folks from around the world were introduced to Tamia’s playful personality through a National Down Syndrome Society video in Times Square on Sept. 18.

“I am awesome,” Tamia shouted during an interview with her mother, Erica.

Tamia was diagnosed with Down syndrome at age 9 months, which is considered late, according to Erica. Usually, that determination is made prenatally or at birth. With Tamia, the focus was put on von Willebrand disease, a blood disorder in which it does not clot properly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blood contains a variety of proteins that help it clot when needed. One of these proteins is called von Willebrand factor.

Tamia, Erica and her oldest son, 12-year-old Timothy, all have the deficit. Timothy suffers from nearly 200 nose bleeds a year. Erica is also the mother of 8-year-old William.

The children’s father, also named Timothy Wilson, has been missing since spring 2019. The last time she heard from him was May 13, 2019, when the family lived in Ahwatukee.

“We have to keep rolling with the punches,” she said. “We miss him immensely. There’s not much we can do outside of what we already have done. We don’t have the money to hire private detectives.

“I have a friend who does private detective work, and he runs his Social Security number every now and again and there are no hits. He is listed on a national database, so if he’s discovered anywhere, I will be contacted.”

To add to the trauma, Wilson’s mother, Beverly Edwards, died in October. As with the status of Wilson’s husband, she rolls with the punches.

In the lights

Wilson read about the video opportunity through a Facebook group for Down syndrome and saw her friends’ children included in previous years’

Shines...continued on page 26 Erica Wilson calls her daughter, Tamia, her “little sunshine.”

(Photo courtesy of Erica Wilson)